Hard News: What Now?
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Matthew Poole, in reply to
Why did it take a blogger to make everyone notice? What were journalists doing?
One assumes they were doing the easy stories that have nicely-packaged narratives and compelling imagery, along with being in easily-accessible locations within Shower and Rescue Cities. Refugee City sounds like it's somewhat hard to get at, at least in places, and the circumstances don't lend themselves to easy explanations in 20-second sound-bites. Plus, there's nothing compelling about streets full of cracks and silt, because you can see it everywhere. USAR teams aren't present in force, carrying out heavy rescue work, and we've seen our fill of damaged residential premises after September. The CBD pictures aren't worn out from repetition, yet.
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giovanni tiso, in reply to
Refugee City sounds like it's somewhat hard to get at, at least in places, and the circumstances don't lend themselves to easy explanations in 20-second sound-bites.
I know plenty of journalists who have no qualms going into actual war zones, let alone places that look like war zones. Plus if you're looking for the story that somebody else doesn't have, you go where your colleagues aren't. And there is a lot of local knowledge amongst local journalists, they're not exactly airlifted in from overseas. So again I must ask - why did it take a blogger?
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Craig Ranapia, in reply to
Am I the only one who thinks that may be a story there, and that it may be just as much about the media as the institutional response?
Gio: Quite. I think the emergency services themselves would be the first to say there’s always things you should have done better – and I’m damn sure they’ll have multiple fine-tooth combs applied. Ditto for the media: Were they too concentrated in the CBD? Fair question, and one I’m sure will be asked – but again, I think we need to be very careful and fair-minded about the practical limitations and human factors involved.
The quotes Steve provided support his case, don’t they?
Sacha: If you’re already convinced Brownlee is a callous douchebag, who doesn’t give a shit about anyone not bearing a cheque made out to the National Party – confirmation bias FTW! With the benefit of 20/20 hindsight, there are a lot of people who should have been more up with the play in the Eastern suburbs but shall we extend everyone the presumption of innocence until proven guilty?
I'm sure all this is just going to get another "CraigBot" bitch, but I'm trying to be more careful about speaking out of the privilege of 20/20 hindsight and 480 miles or so of distance.
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Sacha, in reply to
Uh, Steve provided Herald quotes including this one: "Gerry Brownlee says he did not realise how neglected the eastern suburbs of Christchurch have been."
As others have been saying, you can read this as a matter of competence, priorities or stretched resources without having to turn it into a referendum on character.
Having said which, one person has been given much power and all the responsibility that goes with it. I'm sure Brownlee welcomes the accountability and hardly needs defending from it.
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Can I just... okay, the response I've found stunningly inadequate is Bob Parker's when asked if the portaloo situation in Aranui was good enough: "blather... well, is it good enough there was an earthquake and lots of people died?" Blather caused, I am assuming, because he had no idea whether there were portaloos in Aranui or not. The next day he and Mike McRoberts went on a jaunt to Sumner.
What has impressed me? Metiria Turei. Drove up from Dunedin with piles of lunches, and she and about twenty Greens went straight to work with the volunteer army digging silt out of retirement flats in Woolston. TV cameras nil, shovels lots.
Now yes, that accords with my own existing political biases. I'm inclined to cut any politician who lives here some slack, but what Peter says about living in Shower city and going back there every night has resonance.
The day after Parker was asked about it, it turned out they could get portaloos to Aranui after all.
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Craig Ranapia, in reply to
I’m sure Brownlee welcomes the accountability and hardly needs defending from it.
Which I'm not doing, but hell if you're default position is that anything Brownlee (or any other politician) says automatically justifies the most mean-spirited and flat out ugly interpretation possible, go to.
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Andre Alessi, in reply to
It isn’t my place to pick for christchurch but if it was my choice that rebuilding would be slower and attempt to make something really neat, not simply restore business premises to functional.
But people aren't going to hang around for a year waiting for their workplaces to be rebuilt. It's all well and good to want to use Christchurch as a model for "City of the Future!" (insert Simpsons "Monorail" reference here) but there's no point building a city where half the population has had to move away to other cities to find work before it's done.
Good planning is obviously now even more important than ever, but I think there's the possibility of losing sight of who all this rebuilding is intended to benefit.
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Sacha, in reply to
Metiria Turei talks to bfm about her visit to Christchurch - page has link to download/play MP3.
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Seems no-one at Te Herald has noted the wonderful work of those that put together the Christchurch Recovery Map... Yet!
I will be counting the minutes until it does.Hayden Donnell, I'm looking at you.
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I notice the Herald has changed the colour of its Banner to Red and Black.
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Sacha, in reply to
the most mean-spirited and flat out ugly interpretation possible
What Steve actually said was:
Perhaps the Herald could use its resources to put together a Daily supplement (delivered free for Christchurch residents only) of pertinent information and, whilst they were at it, report back to the rest of the country so people like Gerry Brownlee could get a clue as to what is going on in the "Less Glamorous" areas.
Frankly, I think you need to check whatever baggage you're bringing to the reading.
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To be fair, the local MPs, particularly Brendan Burns and Lianne Dalziell, have been going on about lack of information, poor communication and neglect of the area since the September quake. But they are probably considered too 'political'.
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giovanni tiso, in reply to
But people aren't going to hang around for a year waiting for their workplaces to be rebuilt. It's all well and good to want to use Christchurch as a model for "City of the Future!" (insert Simpsons "Monorail" reference here) but there's no point building a city where half the population has had to move away to other cities to find work before it's done.
The reconstruction is going to boost the economy, I think we can all agree on that, but it will benefit industry sectors unequally. I would hope that part of the tax take from the great infrastructure projects ahead will be invested in making the city livable in and workable in, which is going to be hard but has been done before in other countries. And really nobody can afford to be out of work for 5, 10 or 15 years, so temporary provisions will have to be made regardless of the time frame.
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dyan campbell, in reply to
Stephen, thank you for posting the link about refugee city. Since the quake I've been able to contribute nothing besides a donation, and the sense of being nothing more than a spectator to so much misery has been frustrating.
I'm so glad each and every PASer (and everyone else of course) who survived the quake is still with us. I hardly know many of you in person, but feel I know you so well in print.
The link Stephen posted really drives home to me how hard life is for people in the aftermath. We read about the quake and the loss of life, but quickly forget about the huge hardship that ensues.
The link also talks about the terrible inequalities that are emerging - this is a very bad thing for a society (and by "society" I mean the people that make up that society), especially now. So the bit about urging the media to change the script the really jumped out at me. I am going to act on this fellow's plea and write to various media to voice my opinion that the media should shift their focus on how efficiently and how equitably the services are being restored.
I'm grateful to Stephen for supplying some small sense of purpose for me - there's great consolation in being useful.
From the link:
REGARDLESS of where you live:
Please do something to help the media to change their script. Lost lives and broken buildings do matter, and so does our nation's economic future. But there is potential for much more stress and suffering in the hidden Refugee City if we fail to help where help is needed, right now.
So call talkback, post on Facebook and Twitter, email radio stations, hassle the Press, TV staff and any politicos you know -- until the focus shifts away from Rescue City a little.
Put the message out! [I'd give you contacts for all the above -- and many others nationally and internationally -- but almost every one of you reading this has better bandwidth than me today, so go look them up! Likewise appealing photos to illustrate this story.]
The acute phase will pass for these suburbs once power, adequate transport and running water (or good access to drinkable water) is commonplace in each of them. But that's not today and -- for some -- it will be weeks away.
That's it. There is a real, immediate problem, and the solution is not an easy one. But there ARE things that you can do, if you are willing.
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nzlemming, in reply to
Which I’m not doing, but hell if you’re default position is that anything Brownlee (or any other politician) says automatically justifies the most mean-spirited and flat out ugly interpretation possible, go to.
Why you're getting the CraigBot appellation is your seeming default position that ANY criticism of the current government is a personal attack on individuals, or a bias-confirmation slander without basis in fact. It's getting tiring. I, among others, have tried to make jokes about it (hence, the CraigBot) to, perhaps, jolt your self awareness, but it isn't working.
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More attention, more chaos unearthed. TV3 journo/producer Monique Devereux is tweeting today from the eastern suburbs:
(11.06am) Am in #eqnz devastated Aranui, no power water or sewer. No portaloos either. Housing Nz doing some good work here, but no other services.
(11.30) What's the closest place for Hampshire and Aldershot St people to get water please? #eqnz no power, water etc I want to give residents info
(11.35) Actually can the Christchurch City Council send a water truck to Aldershot st please? People have no cars here to carry water bottles. #eqnz
(11.52) Water truck just drove down Aldershot St Aranui, and sprayed the roads wet. Residents look on in disbelief. They want water to drink!! #eqnz
I'd guarantee that drinking water and dust-suppression spraying are organised by separate teams or agencies - but where's the coordination? And the priorities?
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The local anarchists are organised.
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People can't afford to be out of jobs for six months. That has to be the realistic goal: to restore some kind of a functioning economy to Christchurch within the next three-six months. It might not be in the CBD, it might not be permanent, but it has to be something that can keep putting food on the table. (It might involve large amounts of gov't cash floating around to facilitate -- loans to business, grants to help pay wages, assistance with alternate premises.)
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giovanni tiso, in reply to
The local anarchists are organised.
As they always are.
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giovanni tiso, in reply to
People can't afford to be out of jobs for six months. That has to be the realistic goal: to restore some kind of a functioning economy to Christchurch within the next three-six months.
Yes. I wonder if somebody can shed any light on the university side of things. Adelaide offered to take Christchurch students yesterday. Had other NZ universities done the same? And if not, why not? Are arrangements in place with Adelaide to maintain the links with Canterbury Uni? There's going to be a damn fine line there between supporting and poaching and I wonder if anybody has a view or information on this.
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Correction.
eq.org.nz has been mentioned in the Herald but only the Business site.
Disaster-proofing pays off for firms
By Adam Gifford
Bottom of page we have.Wellington firm Catalyst IT has created a website, http://business.eq.org.nz/, to co-ordinate support for IT businesses in the city.
And.
5.49pmA website has been set up to coordinate support for IT businesses in Christchurch. See http://business.eq.org.nz/ if you are in need of, or can offer, help.
Still no mention of the far more useful Christchurch Recovery Map
Community information for the Christchurch Earthquake of 22 Feb 2011.
Sigh. -
Steve Barnes, in reply to
People can’t afford to be out of jobs for six months. That has to be the realistic goal: to restore some kind of a functioning economy to Christchurch within the next three-six months.
I have been thinking about this and would propose an emergency relocation package for those not involved in the actual rebuilding. This would have to include housing, jobs, schooling and support. This would clear the way for a massive reconstruction effort and reduce the need for local support and thus strain on an already overworked infrastructure.
Too drastic?. -
Ok, I'll take that back about the Recovery Map. It can be found buried on the Heralds own info page... Here
Why the didn't do a direct link and a story I don't know. -
Rich Lock, in reply to
I do struggle to keep up with where the moral high ground is at any given moment.
Yes, I find it has this tendancy to unexpectedly liquefact under one's feet.
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Since the quake I've been able to contribute nothing besides a donation, and the sense of being nothing more than a spectator to so much misery has been frustrating.
The bit about urging the media to change the script the really jumped out at me. I am going to act on this fellow's plea and write to various media to voice my opinion that the media should shift their focus on how efficiently and how equitably the services are being restored.
More or less my reaction.
Does anyone have any ideas as to who the most useful targets for any sort of correspondence would be?
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